


Kevamie Royalty AU (new)

by McFaye



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Changed the plot like completely, I rewrote the royalty au bc I just didn't like it, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-06-24
Updated: 2019-01-11
Packaged: 2019-05-28 02:34:26
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 20,333
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15038759
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/McFaye/pseuds/McFaye





	1. Chapter 1

The door Jamie was standing in front of was far too fancy for him to even be able to look at. He knew he had applied for this job and he had gotten it, but he still felt like he wasn’t supposed to be here. Even in his borrowed tuxedo, he didn’t feel special enough to go inside, much less talk to anyone he might meet in there. But, it was getting cold and getting dark, and if he stood out here any longer a guard might come out and tackle him.

No, no. He’d be fine. It would be fine.

After summoning his courage, he grabbed the door handle and pushed it open, hoping no one would greet him. When the door was fully pushed aside, he looked into the large main hall and another ornate door on the other side of the hall. The floor was marble, the walls looked to be something like velvet, and the ceiling seemed to be gold with intricate details carved into it. He swallowed hard and forced himself to take a step forward. 

Jamie’s eyes glanced around the walls, the floor, and the ceiling, scanning for everything that was worth more than his house. He was partially glad that no one was there to judge him, but he wished someone would come in there and give him some sort of instructions. If someone came in there to yell at him and tell him that he wasn’t supposed to be there and he had to leave at least he wouldn’t be so unsure of himself. Then he could leave and never have to face the prince. When living as a commoner, he was slightly scared of him, as everyone was. Sure, it hadn’t happened in centuries but he could still legally use the guillotine on anyone he pleased. 

Okay, okay fine, he probably wouldn’t send him to the guillotine. But the thought was still scary. Everyone he knew was scared of the prince, they were just two drastically different classes.

Now, however, he wasn’t just a citizen, and it felt strange. Since he had gotten the job as Kevin’s butler and was actually inside the castle, he was a more important person. He was even considered a member of royal staff, which made sense, but he couldn’t seem to be happy about it. Sure, he got to stay in a huge castle and all he had to do in return was fold things and pour tea. Not to mention working for royalty got you a huge paycheck. 

“H-hello?” 

When Jamie got to the door he couldn’t do anything but stare at it. He could just leave, he could just run back and never return, continue living as a normal person. He didn’t have to do this.

No, he had to, he couldn’t just leave, not when they were expecting another staff person to be able to do work for them. Jamie had a responsibility to work here, he was supposed to be here. The thought of standing next to Prince Kevin almost all the time was a little intimidating, but if he didn’t stand next to him the whole damn day, who would? Then again, who needed someone to stand next to them 24/7?

After a minute or two Jamie realized saying ‘hello’ very quietly to a very thick door probably wouldn’t get any response. He was going to have to knock, there was no way around it. He reached out for the brass knocker and brought it down upon the door twice. At first, no one answered, so he reached to knock again, but at that moment the door started to open and he pulled his hand back quickly.

“Are you my new butler?” 

Prince Kevin was as fancy as people described him to be. His dark red jacket was covered with gold and yellow embellishments, and the light reflecting off his crown was blinding. He was also rather attractive, his skin perfectly smooth and his hair gracefully hanging off his head. It’s not like he didn’t know what he looked like, he had seen him on TV before, but he looked even better in real life. His expression seemed flirtatious and curious, and he greeted him with a smirk. Jamie straightened his posture and folded his arms behind his back as a sign of respect.

“Yes, uh..my lord.” 

The words felt odd leaving his mouth, he didn’t feel like he was supposed to be talking to him directly. Even worse, he had hesitated, he even said ‘uh’, the most unprofessional word in the universe. He felt as if he was going to be punched in the face. When Kevin registered his words, his smirk was far more prevalent.

“With speech skills like that, you could be my jester too.” 

Kevin laughed softly, trying to use a joke to ease his glaringly obvious nerves. Jamie certainly did look awfully scared of him. His goal was to intimidate him slightly as with all of his staff, but if he was even a little meaner it looked like he was going to start crying. 

When Jamie realized he was just joking, he laughed nervously, doing his best to stand up straight instead of cowering. Kevin thought to himself for a second, trying to remember the information he was given about his new butler. He wasn’t the one who hired him, so he was struggling to remember his name.

“Your name is Jamie, right?” Kevin scanned his face to make sure he was using the correct name for him. “Welcome, I’ll have my guard show you to your room.” Kevin cleared his throat before calling him.

“Derrick! Butler!” 

Jamie jumped slightly as he shouted, for a prince he expected him to be more professional. Jamie breathed evenly, trying to calm himself down. A second later, a guard walked in behind Kevin, and he certainly didn’t look too happy to be there. When he glanced at Kevin he scowled, and his expression didn’t get any better when he looked at Jamie. He stood still and nudged his head to instruct Jamie to follow him. 

“Stupid fucking entitled idiot-” The guard muttered under his breath.

“Shut up, Derrick!” 

Maybe people were right about Kevin being a ruthless leader, he had just told his guard to shut up. Although in fairness, it seemed the animosity was mutual. 

The guard led him into the room behind Kevin, the throne room. Two large empty thrones sat at the end of the room in front of a set of marble stairs and a sort of stage. There were several musicians holding large instruments talking amongst themselves. From there they went through various hallways and then got to a door with a plaque stating that it was the servants quarters. Derrick twisted the doorknob and opened the door, leading to another hallway with many doors on either side. He turned around to face Jamie, and he re-straightened his posture.

“Okay, your duties are as follows:” Derrick reached into his pocket and pulled out a folded up piece of paper and read in the most unenthusiastic voice Jamie had ever heard.

“You must serve tea, fold sheets, bring messages and mail to Kevin, always stand to his left, do anything he asks, wake him up, wait in his room until he falls asleep, dress him-”

“Wait, what-”

“-and provide emotional support. You start tomorrow morning. One more thing.” Jamie stood idly as he thought of his responsibilities.

“What’s that?” 

“Good luck.” 

Derrick shoved the paper into Jamie’s chest and walked away as it dwindled to the floor, muttering obscenities about his prince as he stomped out of the hall.

After watching him leave, Jamie turned back to see that the doors had small nameplates with the names of their residents. He walked over to the one that said ‘Jamie’, and opened the door.

The room was beautiful, with a canopy bed and a nice stack of silk pajamas, fluffy towels, and a spare tuxedo. Some better butler must have gotten to the room before him because there wasn’t a speck of dirt or anything remotely messy in the room. Everything else was empty for him to fill, the tops of his desks and dressers were devoid of the trinkets he had in his room at home. 

Jamie had already gotten to the castle after dinner, so there was no reason to leave his room for anything, but he still had questions about the list of responsibilities the guard had given him. A few of the duties seemed excessive, and he was really hoping he didn’t have to do such specific things. Particularly having to dress Kevin. He was a grown man, prince or not he could put on his damn clothes. Besides, Jamie didn’t think he’d be able to keep a straight face while seeing him without clothes.

Jamie did his best to memorize the path they had taken to his room, and from there he figured he could just find him standing around somewhere. It’s not like Derrick cared about his job very much. On his way out of one of the hallways, he bumped into someone, nearly falling onto his ass. He pulled back, scratching his neck and then looking up to check who he had to apologize to.

“I’m sorry I wasn’t looking where I was-” at that moment he heard something clang to the floor.

Upon his brain registering the appearance of who he’d hit, he realized he bumped into Kevin,   
and his crown had fallen onto the floor.

“Oh my god, I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean t-!” 

Jamie’s voice dwindled and he froze, unable to form a coherent sentence. The silence as Kevin stared at him was deafening, and every second that passed felt like an hour. Kevin then bent down and grabbed his crown, dusted it off, and placed it back on his head. Jamie was uncertain of any punishment he’d receive for this, but he could feel that it wasn’t 

Jamie wasn’t sure what he was expecting when Kevin registered what happened, but it certainly wasn’t to have him smirking at him. Jamie decided he’d still apologize, just in case.

“I’m really sorry, please don’t kill me.” 

Kevin stared at him and then smiled again. Commoners were usually nervous around him, but Jamie was incredibly anxious. It was a little cute, but he felt kind of bad making him scared, and he wasn’t even trying. It was just better to comfort him.

“Relax, I won’t kill you. Did you have a question or something?”

Kevin stood with his arms folded behind his back, which seemed to be a very important kind of posture around here. Reminded of the sign of respect, he put his arms behind his back as well, trying to make up for knocking off his crown.

“It’s okay, did you need something?” 

Jamie did have a question, but he was hoping to confide in the guard because it would be rather embarrassing to explain to Kevin that he couldn’t dress him because he was too gay for that.

“Um, I was just wondering if you needed anything?” Kevin chuckled softly as Jamie folded his hands and smiled nervously.

“I’m good, I’ll see you tomorrow morning and go over the day’s schedule with you. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got work to do.” 

At the mention of this so-called work, Kevin didn’t seem too happy about it but brought his face back to a slight smile. A big part of being royalty was pretending to be in good spirits all the time.

“Have a good night.” Kevin turned around but keeping his eyes on Jamie, then continued on his way, going through a door to his left.

Jamie gulped and was jumpy as he turned around to head back to his room, nearly tripping and slamming his face on the floor. His hand was shaking as he turned the knob to walk back into his new room, and in trying to close the door he accidentally slammed it. He uneasily sat on the bed, putting a hand to his face to feel the heat radiating off of it. He could have sworn that Kevin just winked at him as he walked away.


	2. Chapter 2

His first night in the castle Jamie had decided to use his full range of fanciness that he had been given. The pajamas he was given were light and incredibly comfortable, and he found that when he laid on his bed it was the most luxurious thing he’d ever slept on. Unfortunately, since his bed was so comfortable, he found it was very hard to wake up, and even then get up. Finally, he forced himself two inches off the bed and looked at the digital clock on his dresser. It was about fifteen minutes after he was supposed to wake Kevin up.

It took him a moment to register the gravity of the situation, and then he flung himself out of bed and hurriedly changed into the clean suit provided. He ran into his bathroom and brushed his teeth for about ten seconds before running to the door and stepping into the hall. Though running would have been the best way to get to Kevin quickly, he acknowledged that it wasn’t very fancy to bound down the halls when late. His alternative was to keep his arms behind his back again and power walk to the room he suspected was Kevin’s. He had reason to believe so, judging by the fact it was a very large door and there was a plaque on it that said “His Highness Prince Kevin”.

Jamie pushed the door open slightly, a little nervous, checking to see if he was awake. The door creaked as he peered in, and he hoped it wasn’t too loud. He was expecting to see an indignant Kevin, upset that he was late and glaring at him. However he was still asleep, his arm hanging over the edge of the bed and he was snoring slightly. It was actually rather adorable, him sleeping peacefully with bed head in his face. He walked into the room and stood over him, reaching down to gently shake his shoulder.

“C’mon Sir, it’s time to get up.” When he didn’t get a response, he shook him a little rougher. This time only elicited a slight grunt.

A few seconds later he rolled over and stretched his arms above his head, yawning then opening his eyes. He sat up groggily, forcing himself to crawl out of bed.

“Uh, good morning my liege. Did you sleep well?” He rubbed his eyes with his fists and blinked a couple times.

“Ngh, yeah.” He looked over to his clock, inspecting the time.

“I was supposed to be up twenty minutes ago, what happened?” Being late on his first day wasn’t good, so he figured it wouldn’t be too bad if he fibbed a little.

“Uh, you wouldn’t get up.”

Kevin groaned and forced himself out of bed, hugging his arms as he tried to muster the energy to get changed. He trudged over to his closet and pulled out the outfit that he was wearing last night. He set them on the bed and was about to change. Jamie remembered what he was told yesterday that he was supposed to dress him, and he never got to ask if he really had to. He walked over to grab the jacket and began to zip it open, preparing himself to put it on Kevin. When he looked up he saw the prince staring at him in confusion. Maybe that dressing part was an old rule. He slowly set it back down on the bed and stepped back.

“Right, um, bye!” Jamie walked backwards to the door and stepped out into the hall to wait for Kevin to get dressed.

He leaned against the wall as he waited, and was then met with the sound of rapid footsteps coming down the hallway. Whoever it was seemed to mistake Jamie’s figure for Kevin.

“Majesty, your majesty! I found some eviden-” He cut himself off when he realized he wasn’t talking to the prince.

“You’re not Majesty.” Jamie corrected his posture as he looked the man over, and was particularly curious about his fry-like hair.

“What is it this time?” Kevin sighed as he walked out of his room, looking as perfect as he did the night before. It was hard to believe that a few minutes ago his hair was a rat’s nest and he could barely open his eyes.

“I have found reasonable evidence for the gem nymphs being real! This photograph shows-”

“Ronaldo, how many times have you come to me with this news and how many times has it been fake?”

“No seriously, this purple one is literally shifting into-”

Kevin massaged his temples and beckoned for Jamie to follow him down the hall. Jamie looked back at the man as he kept trying to get Kevin’s attention.

“Uhh, who was that?”

“Local kook. Well, his title is ‘Paranormal Investigator’ but it’s not really real. He’s kinda just like an annoying plant.”

“Huh?”

“His job is pretty much fake, but he’s really into it. Anyways, we have a meeting to discuss tensions with a neighbouring kingdom.” Jamie observed the annoyance on his face at the mention of both those things. It was clear he wasn’t very glad about what this meeting would entail.

“Well, I hope it goes well.”

Kevin looked back at him as they walked, smiling at his consideration. When they were hiring a butler for him he was expecting some old man that wouldn’t talk to him, but Jamie was sweet and very kind. A breath of fresh air in the stuffy castle.

“Thanks. You’re so kind.” Jamie beamed at his compliment. As if there was nothing else Kevin could do to make Jamie crush on him harder.

When they walked into the room they were greeted with a room full of people who all looked disinterested in being there and each other. After a quick glance at the clock, Kevin can see that he’s a minute late, a death sentence for someone of such high status. They were all busy talking amongst themselves and didn’t even notice that Kevin had walked in. He stood behind his chair, and Jamie stood next to him, watching him. He cleared his throat loudly to get their attention.

“Ladies and gentlemen, quiet please.”

He sat down and began to talk, causing Jamie to realize there was nothing for him to do here. No one had provided a chair next to Kevin, which meant he’d be standing the whole time. He just had to stand next to his chair, and be silent.

Since he lived in the same kingdom as them he was trying to listen and be aware of what was going on, but he didn’t account for the extreme boring that would result in listening. He could pick out a few sentences about ‘what to do about this’ and etc., etc. All he could really put together was that a neighbouring kingdom belonging to someone named Stevonnie wasn’t all too happy with them, and Kevin seemed very upset and dismissive at any mention of why they were so mad at him.

After about a half hour of standing there, counting all the tiles on the floor, and trying to remember the lyrics to a song in his head, it appeared that they weren’t getting anywhere and the meeting was adjourned. Everyone got up from their chairs and began to converse with each other, and Kevin was planning to talk to Jamie but was interrupted by his advisor, further discussing the problem.

Jamie stood idly by watching them talk, and got more and more confused every second. No matter what angle he looked at it he wasn’t able to piece anything together. If he wanted to know what was going on, he was going to have to ask about it. He cleared his throat subtly, and they looked at him.

“Yes, Jamie?”

“Uh, forgive me for living under a rock but, why are there such high tensions with this Stevonnie person?” Kevin’s face went blank, and his advisor looked at him amused.

“Go on. Tell him.”

“I, I don’t want to,” Kevin spoke like a child who didn’t want to explain how he trashed the house. The advisor spoke for him instead.

“A few months ago at a ball Gumby here flirted with them, unaware of their royal status, then tripped, spilt punch all over himself, and in order to maintain balance grabbed onto Stevonnie’s suit, it slipped out of his hand, and he fell on the table. No one else really knows about it because he refused to let anyone talk about it because he was embarrassed.”

Kevin glared intensely at his advisor, upset at him for actually telling him the story. The tensions were already high and reliving his biggest humiliation didn’t make him feel any better about it. Jamie couldn’t help but snicker at it, and Kevin’s glare switched to him.

“Sorry, sorry. It’s a little funny.” Kevin’s face heated up at that. He liked Jamie a lot, and he didn’t want him to know how idiotic he was.

“It’s not funny! Stop telling him things! And I’m not like Gumby, by the way.”

His advisor also laughed at him, and Kevin stared at the floor. The facade of professionalism peeled back to reveal an absolute dork who had gotten his kingdom a little too close to war because he was such a clumsy oaf. His bashful expression was pretty cute, Jamie had to admit it. However, Kevin seemed done with this topic and ready to leave.

“Okay Jamie, let’s go.” Kevin grabbed Jamie’s wrist and guided him to the door of the meeting room.

Jamie smiled awkwardly at the people in the room as they were leaving, not daring to rip his arm away from Kevin’s grip. None of the people seemed to care about Kevin leading him out, but a certain paranormal investigator was paying attention to how quickly Kevin and Jamie were becoming close. Kevin never touched his old butler, or even wanted him to accompany him anywhere. But with Jamie, he certainly had no aversion to it.

–

From every description people gave him about Kevin, one thing that was consistent was how he was distant and uncaring. At first glance, Jamie could understand, but as his first day of work went on he could tell that just wasn’t true. He talked to Jamie as if they were friends just hanging out. He was a butler, a servant, but Kevin conversed with him as if he’d known him for a long time. The one thing Jamie didn’t get was that Kevin was supposed to ask him to do things, and hadn’t asked him to do anything. So far that day aside from taking Kevin’s clothes to and from the laundry room and tidying up his bedroom Kevin hadn’t asked for anything besides his company.

Most of the remainder of the day was taken up by standing next to Kevin in his office. He had his head propped up on his fist and signed his name on about five hundred different pieces of paperwork. Every few minutes he started leaning forward slowly and his eyelids would start to fall, then he would pull back and jolt himself awake. He’d been trying to keep himself awake by eating some snacks he had hidden in his desk drawer, and at dinner time he waved Jamie away, letting him go eat while he just kept working.

“You can go eat, you know. I’ll be here.” Kevin rubbed his eyes as he stared at the paper on his desk.

Jamie wasn’t sure if he was allowed to go pretty much anywhere without Kevin, or vice versa. After all, his job title was a personal butler and he was instructed to always stand next to him. He was Kevin’s right-hand man and was assigned to accompany him practically everywhere. But, Kevin was insistent that Jamie go eat, and so he complied.

–

The dining room was as ornate and fancy as the rest of the castle, and so was the food. Of course, Jamie didn’t expect anything less, but he was still surprised. Maybe it was due to never living in a castle before.

Unfortunately, it seemed the other workers in the castle didn’t care about conversations and treasured awkward silence. Since Jamie was new here, he decided to make an attempt to socialize, but it was met with disinterest. The cook came out with the food, setting it out for everyone. When he set down some plates in front of Jamie, he tried to greet him.

“Thank you…Lars.” Jamie observed the small name tag he was wearing, trying to be as friendly as possible.

He was met with the man looking at him confused, not understanding his attempt at friendship. Lars rolled his eyes and continued bringing food to the rest of the people at the table.

The people around him looked at him with odd expressions at his pathetic conversation attempt. Jamie had been told throughout the media his entire life that one thing consistent with royalty was politeness, but just a simple thank you was apparently not as nice as he thought. He cleared his throat and stared at his lap, avoiding eye contact with everyone.

Jamie had finished his food quickly and couldn’t bear sitting in silence. He had grown up in a large family, and dinner was always accompanied with talking about what had happened that day. Yet the longer he sat there, the more it became evident that he wasn’t welcome there. He tried to get up as quietly and discreetly as possible, but he failed to factor in how much the chairs screeched when they rubbed against the floor. For the first time, all the eyes in the room were on him since he thanked the cook. He decided it wasn’t worth embarrassing himself further, and made to leave the room.

When he closed the door behind him and made it into the hallway he breathed a sigh of relief leaning against the door. After sufficiently embarrassing himself he decided he could just go back to Kevin and stand for another two hours, but on his way there he was interrupted by a tap on his shoulder.

“Hey, kid! You’re the brat’s new butler, right?” The lady who had tapped his shoulder was holding a bag with a picture of an envelope on it.

“Barb!” Jamie immediately recognized the former mail woman from his town. “Uh, you mean the prince?” She shook her head at Jamie not getting her joke.

“Yeah, are ya?”

“Yes, do you need to talk to him? He’s in his office.” She dismissed this idea with a wave of her hand.

“Nope, I just have some mail for him.” She leaned in closer to Jamie and jabbed her elbow into Jamie’s ribs.

“And giving him his mail and messages is /your job/, kid.”

She stood back and dug into the bag, and then pulled out a few envelopes. She handed them to him and then clipped her bag shut.

“Alright, have a good night, kiddo!” Rather than argue that he was twenty years old, he decided to go and deliver the mail to his monarch.

Jamie opened the door, expecting Kevin to greet him, but he was passed out on his desk, snoring lightly. He walked towards him as quietly as possible and set the envelopes next to him on top of some paperwork. Waking him up was probably the better thing to do, but he did look like he deserved this sleep.

He reached over to shake his shoulder, but Kevin beat him to it. He raised his head off the desk and a piece of paper that was stuck to his forehead fluttered off. Kevin pushed himself out of his chair and stood up, adjusted his crown, and then looked to Jamie.

“You’re back.” He yawned. “What’s up?” Jamie pointed to the envelopes he left on the desk.

“Uh, you’ve got some mail.” Kevin glanced behind him and counted the letters.

“I’ll read ‘em tomorrow. I’m gonna go to sleep, c’mon.”

–

He was told about his butler duties the previous night and even had a paper detailing them, but Jamie still felt unprepared for the final responsibility of the night. His last job of the night was standing next to Kevin in his room until he fell asleep. He figured it was for protecting him, but there was a guard stationed outside Kevin’s door at night that would have prevented that anyway. Though the guard was Derrick, and from the first impression he gave him, he couldn’t care less if Kevin was attacked in his sleep. In fact, Jamie felt like he would be the person to attach him.

Regardless of the reason, this part of the job was incredibly awkward. It already felt intrusive to stand next to him for the whole day, and now he would have to be next to him as he fell asleep. After Kevin had showered and changed into his silk pajamas he immediately flopped onto his bed.

“Butler, tuck me in,” Kevin spoke in a fake authoritative voice, making a joke about Jamie’s position.

He laughed a little, but though he was done laughing and the joke was over, Kevin was still lying there and was making no attempt to actually pull the blankets over himself. Jamie shuffled forward to the foot of the bed and seized the blankets, then pulled them over Kevin.

“Night, Jamie.”

“Uh night, Your Highness.”

When he was fully covered, he turned over to lean on his side, closing his eyes and trying to fall asleep. Jamie stood back and watched him slowly slip out of consciousness. At first, he thought watching him sleep would be creepy, but it didn’t feel too weird when he was actually doing it. It actually felt peaceful, seeing his torso rise and fall slightly as he breathed was sort of relaxing. The sight was actually starting to make him feel drowsy, and since Kevin was already asleep, there was no other reason to be there.

Before leaving, he noticed some of Kevin’s hair in his face. He stepped forward and reached over to push it out of his eyes, but stopped when he heard a sound come from the hallway. It probably wasn’t someone who was going to get him in trouble, or at least he hoped. Though just in case it was, he quietly opened and closed the door, heading off for his room.


	3. Chapter 3

The more time that passed, the more the fact that this was a job set in. At first, it was just sort of fun, doing small tasks and cleaning up, accompanying Kevin around the castle. But now the routine had made it feel more boring. Wake up, wake Kevin up, walk around with him everywhere, stand next to him while he worked, pour tea, bring new clothes and towels, rinse, repeat. It was getting dull, he wasn’t sure how he expected a butler job to be very exciting besides the paycheck.

He was essentially the doormat, members of royal staff he didn’t even know dumped work on him. He always delivered everything to Kevin, took work from people he wasn’t even sure worked there. It fit the job description, and so he did it, but it just felt patronizing. 

But there was still something that Jamie just couldn’t complain about. Hanging out with the prince all the time definitely contributed to getting to know him a lot better, exactly what Jamie wanted to do. What started as professional side conversations turned into actually joking with one another and being legitimate friends. Jamie wasn’t sure if Kevin thought of him as a good friend but he was too embarrassed to ask. 

Jamie always loved moments like these, when they weren’t doing anything important in particular and they could just talk to each other. There was no professionalism, no ‘sirs’ or ‘your majesty’s, it was almost like they were just normal people hanging out with each other. 

And as Kevin’s butler, he got to learn more things about him. Like things that were going on and Kevin was in charge of, but Jamie preferred to ignore a few of those.

“I almost got tackled to the ground and then I told Derrick “That wouldn’t have happened if you just did your job”, but then he said he didn’t care so I tried to tackle /him/ but couldn’t because apparently I’m “not allowed to do that”.” Kevin made air quotes as he mocked that last sentence.

 

“Have you always been this much of a brat or did it come with the crown?” Kevin grinned at Jamie’s teasing.

“Brattiness like this comes naturally, my dear.” Jamie laughed at him, but then it died out as he realized he called him ‘my dear’. Jokey or not, Jamie couldn’t help his face heating up. Before Jamie could retaliate one of Kevin’s staff walked in. 

“I mean can you even call him a guard if he just does whatever the hell he wants-”

“Hey Kevin, you’re gonna need to announce that marriage thing in a few minutes.” He pushed his white bang out of his face as he spoke.

At that prompt, Kevin’s joking face immediately fell and he resumed his serious look. A few days ago in a meeting, Kevin’s staff had come to the decision that for peace, he would have to marry someone from Stevonnie’s kingdom. He would have done everything he could to refuse this, but they had finally arrived at a decision after such a long time and no matter his status, he didn’t know if he was allowed to debate. And so, he just passively agreed, hoping that something would stop this from happening. 

“Alright. Let’s go.” Kevin sighed as he followed him out of the room, leaving Jamie to stand alone halfway through folding clothes.

Jamie hated to admit it, but ever since they had decided on the arranged marriage he had been legitimately upset. He did have a crush on Kevin when he started out, but it was just puppy love, nothing serious. But after a few months of this job, he was getting attached to him. He actually really liked the prince, and though he knew he wouldn’t actually get to be with him, his heart panged every time anyone mentioned the marriage arrangement. His lips quivered as he thought more about it, then kept his face towards the ground even though no one else was in the room. 

Part of him didn’t believe this was actually happening, that something would stop this or they would come up with a better idea of making peace. But most of him knew it was inevitable. This was arranged and was already in the process of being planned. Sure, he noticed that when Kevin talked about it he wasn’t excited about it, not even interested. Kevin had even told him he didn’t want to do it, but it was still going to happen. The other day he overheard staff members discussing color schemes and Jamie excused himself, claiming he felt sick. 

“Hey, kid!” Jamie practically jumped three feet into the air when he heard a loud greeting behind him.

“Agh-j-what?” He promptly turned around and moved his hair out of his face. The mail lady was back. “H-hey Barb.”

“Geez kid, are you alright? Your eyes are red.” The whole time Jamie was moping over Kevin having to get married, he didn’t even realize he was getting emotional about it. He cursed himself for letting it get to him so much.

“Oh, I’m fine! It’s just dusty in here! I guess I need to clean the room better, heh. Hm.” Jamie’s mind went a mile an hour, hoping his excuse was working, but the lady didn’t seem very convinced.

“..Okay. Anyways, here’s some mail for Kevin, I think it’s about flower arrangements or something.” Jamie was feeling light-headed.

“And hey! Wanna know something fun? /My Sadie/ is gonna be the new princess! Ah!” The lightheadedness was shifting to slight nausea.

“C-cool, cool. She’s nice. I, I need to go s-sit down.” Jamie cleared his throat, shakily taking the envelopes from Barb’s hand. He left the room, heading for his bedroom, ignoring the work he was in the middle of. 

Jamie made his way to his room and gracelessly fell onto his bed. He forced himself to sit up as if that would calm him down faster. As if he laid down he’d just stay there and wallow for the rest of the day. Instead of grovelling, he just stared down at the floor, trying not to think about anything. 

A comforting thought for him was that this was going to be an arranged marriage, and wasn’t out of love. Royal marriages were for money, power, and peace. There were no feelings behind it. Then again, if Kevin was married to Sadie and in close proximity, he might actually start to like her. Perhaps more than like her. That was one of Jamie’s biggest fears since he heard the idea.

Jamie sighed and made himself get up, walking over to one of his shelves. He picked up a small chunk of gold and twisted it in his fingers. On his first night there, Jamie had bumped into him and had knocked his crown off, and apparently, a small bit of it broke off. It wasn’t a large bit, you wouldn’t even notice it was gone unless you were looking for it. Once he and Kevin had grown closer, Kevin gave the piece to him as a sort of keepsake.

After watching the reflections in the smudged metal for a little bit, he formed a fist around it and just held it for a little bit. He couldn’t help thinking about the way Kevin smiled at him after he freaked out. Jamie thought he’d kill him for knocking off his crown, but instead of his signature smirk, it was a genuine smile, maybe even something of adoration. He was too distracted by his thoughts to notice a tear streaming off his chin. He smiled softly as he thought about it.

Oh well. No one else would be around to wait on Kevin’s beck and call and smile like him.  
\--

Paperwork was a large part of Kevin’s job, and therefore it was a large part of Jamie’s. There wasn’t much he did. He just read the paper in signed it, but it made Kevin so tired. Or maybe it was something else draining him. There was only so much time he could spend doing that before Jamie chimed in that he should probably go to sleep. Tonight he didn’t fight it, he just left the stacks of paper and pens on the desk and got up as soon as Jamie suggested it.

Kevin trudged, nearly tripping about five times. Jamie didn’t know if it was because of what was on the papers or if reading in general, was just hard for him. Either way, he was still swaying slightly as Jamie guided him to his room. He was so tired, Jamie might have actually had to put his pajamas on for him. Luckily, they made it to his room and Kevin was able to get ready for bed on his own. 

While he showered, Jamie took the opportunity to sit on his bed. It was far more comfortable than his, and the sheets were silk. It took all of his strength not to fall back and go to sleep. But he just sat there, doing his best not to think about it, not acknowledge it. He didn’t want to think about it, so he pushed it to the back of his mind. He had already wallowed for a considerable amount of time earlier, and it wasn’t getting him anywhere.

There was a faint sort of voice coming from the bathroom. It sounded like a song, but Jamie couldn’t tell what he was singing. It was nice, he didn’t know how good Kevin’s voice was, even if it was from a room over. As if Jamie didn’t have enough reasons to admire him.

A few minutes later, Kevin walked out of the bathroom in his pajamas with a few drops of water falling from his hair. Jamie immediately got up from his bed and stepped aside for him to lay down. Kevin was still remarkably tired, and so he practically fell onto the bed, barely adjusting his body or pulling up the blankets before closing his eyes and trying to fall asleep. 

Jamie would never admit it because honestly, it was a little bit creepy, but he really loved this part of the job. Kevin’s even breathing was very relaxing, and he looked so serene. He didn’t know how he was able to fall asleep so quickly, but he wasn’t really complaining. Sure, there was a guard outside the door, but Jamie was the one who felt like he was actually protecting him. It wasn’t like he felt as if he could fight off an intruder, but as if being there was letting him sleep easier. He had to wonder if Kevin had more trouble getting to sleep before Jamie was sitting next to him at night.

He glanced at his face and observed it. One thing that always happened when Kevin went to sleep was his bangs would fall on his face and cover his eyes. Jamie didn’t understand how he was able to rest with hair in his face. Maybe it was because cleaning was his job, and he’d developed the instinct to keep things in order, but he couldn’t help gently pushing it out of his face and tucking it behind his ear.

However, his perfectionism couldn’t explain why he leaned down to softly kiss his forehead.

He pulled away slightly and panicked just a little. He looked just as peaceful as before, so he hoped he didn’t notice. Jamie looked over at the clock and saw how late it was. If he was going to be coherent at all the next day, he was going to have to go to bed. As slowly and as quietly as he could on the hardwood floor, he stepped back to the door and opened it, cursing every creak it made. He walked out of it and closed it, hoping that it wouldn’t make any more noise. Now that he was on the other side of the door, he wouldn’t notice that Kevin wasn’t even asleep yet, and he was smiling widely to himself with a hand to his forehead.

“Hey! Your Highn-” Before he could even tell who it was, Jamie shushed them loudly, gesturing to the room behind him. It was Ronaldo with piles of blurry photographs in his arms.

“Be quiet! He’s sleeping.” Jamie yell-whispered at him, having to stop himself from cursing at him for being so loud.

“Yeah, yeah sure. Then what are you doing here?” 

Ronaldo barely lowered the volume of his voice, looking at Jamie suspiciously. He cleared his throat as he prepared a response, trying not to think of smooching Kevin’s forehead.

“It’s part of my duties to wait in the Prince’s room until he falls asleep.” 

“That’s an old rule, we have guards now. Why was Kevin making you wait in there with him?” Jamie blinked as he registered what Ronaldo just told him. 

“Not sure. I have to go to bed, see you later.” Jamie pushed by him, going the familiar path of the hallways to the servant’s quarters.

Jamie’s thoughts earlier were bittersweet, reminiscing about the times he’d had since he’d gotten to the castle. He’d even cried a little, and now that he thought about it it was kind of embarrassing. But he felt a little better because he knew that Kevin did want him around.


	4. Chapter 4

This is a lil nsfw so fair warning

 

Jamie had met Barb’s daughter before, and they were actually really good friends a long time ago, but since she was gonna be the new princess he couldn’t help but feel a little jealous.

Of course, it wasn’t her fault. He was pretty sure the only reason it was her was that she was related to Barb, and she already worked here. Jamie would have said that he worked here too, but he didn’t want the stares that would come with that remark.

“And this is the throne room! You’ll be sitting in that one soon sweetie!”

“Moomm, you’re embarrassing me.”

Sadie was following her mother around and dressed like an actual princess. She was trying to look the part, or maybe Barb made her wear it. Jamie had never seen her wear an actual dress before. This had to be a bodysnatcher. Or Sadie in one of Barb’s hand-me-downs.

“Hey, Sadie.” Sadie immediately perked up when she heard his voice. It had been so long, he didn’t know how she recognized him.

“Jamie! Hey, when did you get here!”

“You didn’t tell her I work here now?” Jamie smiled softly as he looked to Barb for an answer. He thought he’d be more envious when he saw her, but it just felt like hanging out as usual.

“I wanted it to be a surprise! See, look how surprised she is.”

“Moommmm..”

Jamie didn’t know how much catch-up-with-old-friends time he got on this job, but he didn’t care. He was gonna talk to her no matter what.

“I could show Sadie around the rest of the castle if you want. I’ve practically memorized the place at this point.”

Barb was so excited to spend time with her daughter, but she was even more excited to see her reconnect with her old friend.

“Alright, go on Sadie, go have fun.”  
\--

“..and this is where I picked up the tea set for the first time and it was so heavy I almost spilled it everywhere.” Sadie giggled, glancing around the room and checking for tea stains.

“Do they have some sort of theater room for you?”

Ever since he was really young, Jamie had an affinity for the dramatic and loved to act. Sometimes he and Sadie would pretend to be in plays when they were hanging out, and Barb was always the sole member of the audience.

“Not that I’ve seen, but Kevin said I could be his jester once. That’d be fun.”

“Hah, yeah. When I get here, I’m gonna make you my jester.”

Jamie’s giddiness started to fall, and no matter how hard he tried, it was obvious his smile was fake. It wasn’t fair to do this, get all upset and whiny whenever this marriage thing was brought up, he wasn’t involved in it at all. It especially wasn’t fair to Sadie, who seemed so excited about getting to live here at some point. Even then, he couldn’t make himself very happy for her.

“Something wrong?” Jamie snapped out of it and realized he was no longer even holding up a neutral face, he was borderline pouting.

“Oh, no. I’m fine. /Ahem/ and over here’s the kitchen…”  
\--

The kitchen was the last stop on the tour, and after showing her around Barb had come back to pick her up, since she was only there to look around. But Jamie stayed in the kitchen, talking absentmindedly to Lars. Apparently thanking him had resulted in being acquaintances, much to Lars’s dismay.

“Look if you don’t stop leaning on that counter I’m going to wipe /you/ down.” Lars held up a wet wash rag to Jamie’s face that smelt so strongly like bleach he could’ve passed out. He immediately lifted his elbows from the counter and coughed.

“Geez, what is that, chloroform?”

Instead of answering him he slapped the rag down onto the counter and cleaned.

“This wistful look you’ve been sporting lately is so creepy, just ask the jackass out already.”

“B-wh?” Jamie was so surprised by someone catching on to him he couldn’t even form coherent words.

“Do you think I’m stupid? You keep shooting Kevin bedroom eyes everytime you see him, people are gonna be able to tell. You haven’t been discreet, like, at all.”

“I-I have no idea what you’re talking about.” Lars looked up from the counter and just stared at him. Jamie cleared his throat loudly.

“Is it really that easy to tell?”

“If you had a mirror held up to you whenever you looked at that guy you’d realize just how clear you can see the expression on your face.”

“What expression?”

“The ‘For The Love Of God Let Me Jump Your Bones’ expression.” Jamie choked on his own spit at that last sentence.

“I-I…”

“You know I’m right.”

Maybe being kind to Lars was good. If he wasn’t more decent to him he probably would have told everyone. He wouldn’t put it past him.

“I’m just looking out for you. Keep it up and I won’t be the only person who notices.”

Jamie folded his hands as he leaned against the fridge, hoping Lars wouldn’t tell him he needed to clean that too. Maybe he just thought gazing at Kevin was something that everyone did, or didn’t even notice he was doing it in the first place.

“Do.. do you think he know-”

Jamie was interrupted by the familiar sound of Kevin’s shoes clicking on the marble floors. In his attempt to stand up straight so fast it would give him whiplash, he tripped on his own feet and started falling before he felt some arms under his, holding him.

“Ha, Lars you care about..me..”

His assumption that Lars suddenly had a change of heart and didn’t want him to fall on his face was incorrect however, it seemed Lars still had a distaste for everyone. But he was much more concerned by the fact that when he turned around to face him, it was Kevin who was standing behind him.

“Uh, are you okay?”

Jamie cleared his throat and realized he probably shouldn’t rely on Kevin to pull him to his feet, and stood up, immediately folding his arms behind his back as if that would take back some of his clumsiness. He glanced at Lars and noticed his evil smirk, which, given their last conversation, was something he totally deserved, because he was giving Kevin goo-goo eyes when he noticed he caught him.

“Yeah! I’m fine, just slipped, Lars cleaned the floors really well.”

“Damn right.” Lars whipped his rag over his shoulder and picked up a bottle of table cleaner.

Kevin smiled softly at him and were it not for what Lars had said, Jamie wouldn’t have noticed how similar Kevin’s longing gaze was to his own. He wasn’t entirely sure what he was supposed to do with this information except for stutter in his own realization.

“Uh, have you met Sadie yet?” Lars perked up from across the room.

“Huh?” Kevin was pulled from his quiet reverie when Jamie brought her up.

“Who?”

“She was here earlier… Barb’s daughter, the girl who’s gonna be the princess?” It seemed to be taking a while for Kevin to realize who he was talking about.

“Ohhh, oh yeah. No.”

“You haven’t even met her yet?”

“No...was I supposed to?” Lars decided that their conversation wasn’t interesting enough to continue eavesdropping, so he moved on to clean the next room.

“Well, she’s supposed to marry you in a while.” Kevin put a finger to his chin in thought.

“Hm, yeah.”

“Oh come on, she’s nice.” At that, Kevin really pulled out his third-grader big guns.

“Well if you like her so much why don’t you marry her?” Jamie blanked, his mind not working at all as he jumped to his own defense.

“Oh, oh no. No, I don’t- she’s like my sister. Besides I already like-...she’s just a good friend.” Kevin’s childlike taunts were not letting up.

“You already like who? Looks like butler-boy has a sweetheart.” Kevin was obviously teasing him and probably had no clue to his feelings, but Jamie felt like his skin was going to burn off his face.

“No, it’s, I do not. Are you always this nosy?”

“It’s called being curious. Anyways, I’ve gotta go work, so…” Kevin raised his hand and beckoned for him to follow, recreating the so-called ‘bedroom eyes’ Jamie had been accused of earlier. He swallowed hard and almost tripped again as he followed him.  
\--

Multiple times on their way to his office, Kevin was stopped by his staff, almost all of them asking about technicalities on the arranged marriage situation. With every sentence, the prince just looked more stressed. If it weren’t for the sake of being professional Kevin probably would have smacked one or two of them, and honestly, Jamie wouldn’t have been surprised.

The just-standing-still-for-upwards-of-an-hour was already one of Jamie’s least liked aspect of the job, and it was even more uncomfortable watching Kevin get progressively more annoyed. It looked like he was going to rip all the papers in half. It was almost depressing, and he just wanted to lean down and give him a hug.

“Hey, Kev?” He turned to him and raised an eyebrow, ready to hear anything remotely interesting.

“Uh, how about you turn in early tonight, you seem….worried.”

“I do not look worried,” Kevin said matter-of-factly as he pretended he was fine. Jamie narrowed his eyes, waiting for him to just admit it under his gaze.

“Fine, maybe I’m a little bit..stressed. But I don’t need to sleep, I’m fi-” He had cut himself off with a yawn, and was then met with Jamie’s knowing look.

“Alright, alright, if it makes you feel better.” He pushed the desk away from him and stood up dramatically. For someone who was supposed to be leading the kingdom, he was pretty bratty, but Jamie was just happy he was letting himself take a break.

Jamie walked him back to his room, paying close attention to Kevin’s face. He really did seem tired. Whatever he was working on was probably incredibly serious, but he never saw him do anything but reading and signing things. He looked like this a lot, actually. Mostly since the proposition of the arranged marriage.

Usually, when they got into Kevin’s room at nighttime, Kevin would go straight into the bathroom to take a shower. Even though he barely did any physical activity, he found it absolutely necessary to take a shower for at least 40 minutes. But tonight he just sank down and sat on his bed.

“Uh. Are you..okay?” Kevin just chuckled slightly, then sighed.

“That’s not important.” Jamie just shook his head and walked over to join him on the bed.

“You know, the first day I got here, Derrick said that emotional support was part of my duties. Comforting you is part of my job description!” His remark sounded jokey, but he was really hoping that Kevin was okay.

“Well for starters, I don’t trust anything that comes out of that guy’s mouth.”

“It’s what he told me, and I think it was good advice. I mean, you’ve been seeming pretty upset about something for a while now.”

Kevin avoided eye contact, reflecting on how obvious his stress was. He’d been so tired for the past week or so, and didn’t talk as much. Of course, Jamie would start to worry, that was just in his nature. He was so caring, one of the many traits he admired of his. Besides, if he didn’t tell him, he’d just keep trying to get it out of him.

“Can you keep a secret?”

Jamie wasn’t really sure what kind of problem would be so secretive. Some sort of major scandal? Were they actually going to war?” Jamie’s heart jumped, getting nervous. After all, Kevin was in charge of the whole kingdom, and probably knew some things that he didn’t.

“Uh-of course.” Kevin hesitated slightly, debating if he should just lie.

“I /really/ don’t want to go through with the arranged marriage.”

“What?” Though it was probably very rude, he couldn’t be more relieved to hear Kevin say that.

“I just, I don’t even know that girl, and I’m probably only gonna have one conversation with her before I’m literally going to live with her for the rest of my life. They say I’ll ‘grow to love her’ or some sort of thing like that, but I doubt it.” He glanced at Jamie’s face and corrected himself.

“I mean not to be mean to your friend or whatever, I’m sure she’s nice and all but, you know what I mean.”

“No, I get it. You don’t even know her. If I had to marry someone I didn’t know I wouldn’t be too happy about it either.” Kevin smiled at him. Of course, he’d be so nice and understanding about it, he didn’t know why he’d expect anything else.

“I’m sorry I’ve been so tired lately, this stupid marriage thing is stressing me out.”

“That’s alright, you don’t have to be super calm all the time-”

“I wish there was a way to back out.”

The speed at which Jamie turned his head to look at Kevin was borderline inhuman. He was aware of the fact that he didn’t really want to it, but he didn’t think he was actively trying to get out of it.

He felt sorry for him but didn’t know how he was supposed to comfort him. Jamie couldn’t just tell him how he was actually relieved to hear him say that. He couldn’t tell him that he was hoping the same thing. Confessing deep feelings to him when he was this mopey and upset would be rather rude. Instead, he opted to shuffle closer to him on the bed, hoping that would comfort him a little. Kevin perked up slightly when he noticed Jamie was now mere inches away from him.

“What? You gonna kiss my forehead again?” Jamie nearly squeaked and fell off the bed.

“Y-you were awake for that?!” Jamie cowered away slightly, which just seemed to amuse Kevin more.

“Might have been.” Kevin snickered at him as Jamie looked away, noticing that his face was getting a lot redder.

Jamie would have been content to wallow in embarrassment at the fact Kevin was aware he kissed him, but he didn’t have much wallowing time before he felt a tap on his shoulder.

“What is i-” He was cut off when the prince pressed his lips to his, a fact he could barely even register, and was still trying to reassure himself that it happened after he pulled away.

“B- I- um- I’ve, I..” Kevin rubbed his shoulder, smiling nervously as Jamie tried to form a sentence. It didn’t seem like he’d be able to, so he decided to give his own.

“You have no idea how many times I’ve wanted to do that.” Jamie fidgeted with his fingers, unsure what he was supposed to do in this situation.

“H-how many times?” Kevin smirked, leaning in again and slowly moving his hand over his shoulder, to his chest, and moving it further down his torso.

“Almost as many times as I’ve wanted to this.” His hand had finally slid from his stomach to his hip, and then his crotch, causing Jamie to shiver.

“U-ah. Oh.”

With Kevin’s mouth on his neck and his hand..somewhere else, there was just too much to pay attention to. His mind was running a mile a minute, and he wasn’t sure what sensation he was supposed to focus on. There was the thought of how on earth it was possible for Kevin to have wanted to this to him many times, and how on earth he acted on it.

“This good?”

“Yes. Yes, good.”

“Is that a yes?”

“Just. Here.”

He put his hand on the back of Kevin’s head and pushed him back to work on his neck. There were a lot of reasons why they shouldn’t be doing this. There had to be some rule against fraternizing here, he was pretty sure fucking the prince without being married to him was illegal in some way, and not to mention, he was the goddamn prince of the entire kingdom. There were so many things that could go wrong if they did this. Or more specifically, if they told anyone.  
\--

Everyone in the castle agreed that Ronaldo’s job was practically meaningless. None of his discoveries were acknowledged, and he was prevented from sharing them with the public. Not to mention he had caught the prince ridiculing him multiple times. A smart idea would have been to just shut up about it and be complicit in being able to live here and getting paid for doing nothing. Unfortunately, he was not very smart by any stretch of the imagination.

The one thing he was wise to was how close the prince was to his current butler. The last one wasn’t too far off from Jamie’s age, so generational gap was not to blame. He also seemed to be a generally likeable person, so why was Kevin so averse to spending time with him compared to the new one? There was no reason for them not to be as close, besides…

His original plan was just to bombard Jamie with questions, and hopefully, he’d crack under pressure and confess. However, when he got to Kevin’s bedroom door, his confirmation was handed to him on a plate. Ronaldo nearly dropped his pen and notepad at the sound.

“K-Kevin, mmhh..”

He immediately pressed his ear to the door, not even daring to breathe so as to capture every incriminating moan. He scribbled down every iteration he heard in a neat list, jotting down notes of possibilities he could make out by spying through the keyhole.

“The butler is performing lewd actions with the prince! I can’t let this go to waste.”

He had to force himself to whisper as not to get caught. He needed every detail if he was going to be able to use this at all. He wasn’t entirely sure what he’d do with this information yet, but surely he’d find it along the way.

Ronaldo didn’t even dare to look at what he was writing, squinting vehemently as he took note of every little occurrence. Every little glance they shared, every movement, every shift of Kevin’s hands as he pulled Jamie’s pants off and unbuttoned his shirt. It was at times like these that Ronaldo cursed himself for not bringing a recording device, and with such juicy information at stake, he couldn’t risk running off to get it.

“Jamie, fuck.”

There was almost no time in between words written, anything he got he wrote down. Such phrases included: The prince has undressed him, during the time until the marriage Kevin is not practicing abstinence, numerous sexual moans are coming from the bedroom, and Note to self: look up if touching the prince’s dick is illegal. If the last one was, he was sure he and his story would go straight to the top.

Suddenly, his audio was disturbed with approaching footsteps. Due to not being the sharpest knife in the drawer, he opted to duck behind a potted plant that was much smaller than him. The figure noticed him of course, and looked at him quizzically.

“Greetings Sour Cream.”

“Are they..?” Ronaldo was almost joyous, ecstatic that he had another witness.

“Yes.”

“Damn. I owe Lars like, fifty bucks now.” He continued on his route, leaving him alone.  
\--

Inside the room, however, they were much busier. Kevin was laying back on the bed, pulling Jamie as close as physically possible while they kissed. His crown was set carefully on the dresser next to them, shining with their moving reflections.

“Do you want ano-”

“Yes.” There was barely any time where their mouths weren’t being used, whether it be because they were kissing or because they were groaning. Only for a little while did Kevin pull him back to say something.

“I-I’m really happy you came here, Jamie. You’re the only solace I get here.”

He blinked at him, staring down at his sincere smile. He was reeling. He should have been able to tell that he liked him from the fact of what they were doing at the moment, but just hearing it out of his mouth how much he liked him, it made his head spin.

“You aren’t just saying that because I have my fingers in your ass, right?” Kevin rolled his eyes.

“Oh way to ruin the mood,” he said jokingly.

“Hey.”

“I’m not just saying it, I, I really like you, and I’m very glad you’re here. You’re really fun to be around.”

“Well, I’m glad I’m here too. I can’t believe I managed to get a job here, which was already lucky, but I got to be close to you.” He rubbed his neck, saying his next phrase hesitantly.

“And I’ll be honest, when they said you had to marry Sadie for peace, it really kinda fucked me up. I didn’t wanna have to watch you get married and just stand next to you guys in silence forever.”

“Someone’s jealous.”

“With good reason! I’d just be..catering to you guys for years, never being able to tell you how I feel.”

“And look at us now.” At that, Jamie looked down, and was hit by a wave of heat. He was so caught up in the conversation he forgot.

“This is really happening.”

“Is that a good thing?”

“Yes. Hell yes.”

“Is that a ye-” Kevin was quickly cut off when Jamie pressed his mouth on his.

“Mmmh, alright,” he mumbled into his lips.

When he first saw him, Jamie was immediately hit with the fact that he had a crush on the prince. But everyone saw him on television, and plenty of people thought he was attractive. There were so many people in his old town who would jump at the chance to work right alongside him. At the time, he sure thought he was handsome, but from what he saw in speeches and addresses, he couldn’t make out a personality. When he applied for the job, being close to Kevin was only a passing thought, one he didn’t think of often. But now, it was regularly scheduled. If he went a day without thinking about it at least once, he must have been sick.

If he was told before he walked through the big golden doors on his first day that he’d be in this situation, pinning Kevin to the bed and biting his neck, he didn’t know how he’d make it inside without his face flushing. Though to be fair, he did blush a decent amount on his first day, but it wasn’t all in the presence of the prince.

It went on, and on until they were too tired to keep themselves awake. Jamie practically fell on top of Kevin when they agreed to stop, passing out before he could wish him a good night. Sure, they were both sweaty, and the heavy blankets on top of them were suffocating and could have caused a heat stroke, there was no place they’d rather be, together in Kevin’s room, nearing midnight.

Once the sounds had stopped and he could make out that they were laying down and staying down, Ronaldo got up from the keyhole, and smiled as he walked away with his notepad full of compromising sentences. He had everything he needed.


	5. Chapter 5

Now i think about it when’s the last time i wrote these two in character? Never. Anyway, here’s a shitpost/serious chapter

In Jamie’s room at the castle, the curtains were permanent, so when he woke up, he wasn’t blinded by the sunbeams coming in. Unfortunately, he had paid a rather long visit to Kevin’s room and through a not safe for work series of events was now sleeping naked in his bed. In Kevin’s room, the curtains were not permanent, and so when Jamie was slowly opening his eyes to wake up, he hissed, and immediately closed them again.

“Sh-! Ow.” 

“Yeah, that’s the sun.”

When Jamie adjusted his eyesight, he realized he was looking up at Kevin, who was in his own process of waking up. Upon accidentally looking past his face, he realized he was also not wearing clothes, but he wasn’t coherent enough to care.

“It’s usually not this bright until like, at least an hour after I’m supposed to wake up.” 

Once Kevin made the connection in his head, his eyes widened and he sat up, looking over at his clock. Just as he had said, it was over an hour after Jamie was supposed to wake him up, and Kevin had no idea what his schedule was today, or if he missed something. He immediately hopped out of bed to look over the floor for where his clothes had been thrown.

“What are y-oh.” Jamie slapped a hand over his eyes, staring at his skin as he waited for Kevin to at least get his underwear on.

“Well, are you gonna get up? Shit-” Kevin egged him on as he was pulling on his pants, and slipped and fell in the process. Jamie crawled towards the edge of the bed, keeping the blankets over his lower body as he checked to see if the prince was alright. 

“Uh, are you okay?” Kevin was clearly embarrassed, but he was still pulling (read: flailing) on his clothes at the speed of sound.

“I’m fine, just put on your clothes!”

He nodded, and regardless of his lack of clothing, he figured that based on last night it’s not like he had anything to hide anymore. He practically dived to the spot on the floor where his uniform was and put everything on, in no particular order. At one point, he was so panicked he tried to put on his bow tie before his shirt.

Once they both had redressed themselves in what they were wearing last night, they were in an almost frozen state, unsure of what to do. Kevin kept glancing at the clock, knowing it was late but not knowing what to do about it. He was about to head for the door when he stopped himself, and stepped back, looking at Jamie.

“Uh, what’s up?” Kevin’s face flushed as he stuttered something out.

“Did you, have a good time last night?”

“Huh? Oh, yeah, yeah. I did.”

“Good, good. Me too,” he fidgeted, adjusting his crown a few inches on his head.

“We should probably get going.”

“Yeah, let’s go.”  
\--

Their mornings were never all the same, sometimes it was meetings, sometimes they just went to breakfast, or Kevin refused to get up. They usually found out what they were doing through other employees who were actually informed about things that were happening, and of course, they wouldn’t be waiting to disclose that info if they were an hour late.

The hallways were empty, and that just made them more nervous. It felt like everyone else was busy and had already started the day, and Kevin not being there meant he was going to be exiled or something.

“So, what are we doing today?”

“I don’t know, I think we should check the meeting room and see if I was supposed to-” 

When Kevin made it to the room, the door was open, and he could clearly see Ruler Stevonnie waiting in a chair for him. He, of course, zipped backwards at the speed of sound, ducking behind his butler as if he was in danger.

“Uh, you okay?” Kevin was hiding behind Jamie, peering over his shoulder to check if they realized he was there.

“J- why would no one tell me in advance? That’s the ruler of the kingdom we’re on the fucking brink of war with because of my dumbassery! And no one thought I should be aware of this-” He was scream whispering to no one in particular.

“Alright, alright calm dow-”

“Kevin?” The prince froze up at the voice uttering his name and spoke only one word.

“Fuck.” 

Kevin swaggered into the room, pretending he was aware of the meeting the whole time. Jamie followed close behind, not as clearly nervous, but very confused.

“Mr. Kevin.” 

“Mx. Stevonnie! How kind and, expected, of you to visit!” Stevonnie stood up, further intimidating Kevin due to their height advantage.

“You didn’t know I’d be here?”

“I was going to tell Jamie if he was here earlier.” Jamie nearly got whiplash as he turned around to see who was talking about him. Of course, it was Ronaldo.

“Who invited you here?” (someones gettin sassy now huh) Regardless of how much everyone hated him, they still thought it weird that Jamie was outright disrespecting another member of staff.

“Uh, Jamie.” He looked over at Kevin and corrected himself.

“I mean, I’m sorry I was not here earlier. Is there something you needed?” It was almost physically painful to be decent to him.

“Yes, I was wondering if I could talk to you outside.” 

Jamie turned around, making eye contact with Kevin, silently asking if he could go with. When Stevonnie’s eyes were on him, he nodded, but when they looked away, he leaned in and frantically whispered.

“Don’t fucking leave me alone with them they’re gonna kill me I can feel it-”

“Sorry baby it’s your job- bye!” Jamie said the last word loud enough for others to hear it, signalling that he’d been given the okay and Kevin had it under control, both of which were untrue. He had only realized he’d called him baby by the time he was on the other side of the door.

Kevin stared at the now closed door, finally realizing that he had been betrayed and was alone with the person who almost declared war against him multiple times for embarrassing himself. He tugged on his collar, trying to cool himself down. He spun around and did his best to keep up good posture.

“Godfuckingdamnit- w-ellll what brings /you/ here?” He said, with the fakest smile he’d ever made. They raised an eyebrow at him.

“The marriage arrangeme-”

“The marriage arrangement! I..knew that. Ahem.”

Kevin pulled out a chair to sit down, jolted slightly as he did, remembering the events of the last night.  
\--

Jamie chuckled a little as he closed the door. Sure, Kevin’s fear of Stevonnie was kind of cute, but it was his job to make sure they didn’t go to war with anyone. He was relatively confident in Kevin’s ability to lead the kingdom, but he wasn’t exceptionally professional. After all, he was only 19 and had literally hidden behind him when he got scared of his responsibility. But he was glad he was giving him the opportunity to take care of it.

Then again, at what cost?

He turned around, and Ronaldo just stared at him, which wasn’t anything new. He tended to stare at people, and it was practically impossible to tell what he was thinking. But this was different. He wasn’t just staring at him to be weird, it was like he knew something Jamie didn’t.

“So, what did you want to discuss?” He only smirked and reached into his pocket, pulling out a closed notepad, and handed it to him.

“Uh, it’s a note..pad. Looks nice, Ronaldo.” 

He frowned at him, and Jamie took it as a sign that maybe he should read it. He flipped it open, and his eyes widened at the sentences he was met with. Jamie’s acting talents were varied, and his prowess at acting as other characters was usually overdramatic, and not very believable. Luckily, he caught on pretty quick to acting innocent.

“Uh, what am I supposed to do with this?” Ronaldo just laughed darkly, glaring at him.

“You know what this is. Keep reading.” 

Even though he was pretending that he had no idea what was going on, he decided he might as well be aware of what information he did have. It was chicken scratch, and every utterance he did and didn’t remember from last night was written down, with descriptive details that would have made his face flush were he not faking it.

“See, I know all about you and Kevin’s little game of ‘Hide The Finger’ last night, and I will tell everyone if you don-” 

The rest of Ronaldo’s pathetic attempt to blackmail him was blurred out by his thoughts. His mind was running too fast to even contemplate how he found out about it. The first thing he thought of was Kevin. Kevin wasn’t being made aware of this, he had no idea that they weren’t the only people who knew about it. He just thought he had a good night and that nothing was wrong, and the fact that Ronaldo didn’t tell him scared him a little. Jamie was just a butler, his reputation was practically nothing. It wasn’t like he had that much to lose, especially not as much as Kevin. He was a public figure, everyone knew who he was, and everyone knew he was supposed to get married to someone in a matter of months.

Jamie’s thoughts then shifted to the matter at hand, realizing that Ronaldo was aware of this, and this was currently happening. He couldn’t just stand there in silence, that would be suspicious.

He was only a butler and wasn’t sure if he had any jurisdiction over anyone, but it was worth a shot. He cleared his throat…

“Fryman, that kind of talk is rude and inappropriate. If you continue to speak in this way and incriminate people as such I will, you will receive, a..full disadulation.”

Ronaldo blinked, looking a little nervous.

“What’s a dis- what’s that?” Well shit, what was it?

“You don’t wanna know.”   
\--

“You’ve met Sadie?”

“Oh, of course. She’s uh, so sweet.” Kevin did not know her at all, he was still convinced that she was Stevonnie’s sister.

“Although I must admit, I’m not too excited for this to happen.”

“Ugh, tell me about it.” They looked at him, leaning back in their chair.

“I meant that I feel sorry for her having to marry you.”

“Oh. Thanks.” 

Kevin fidgeted with his hands, his eyes moving back to the door. Jamie had called him baby before he left, and he couldn’t think about anything else, and couldn’t focus on what Stevonnie was saying to him. 

“This was a nice chat. I’d better go see what my butler has gotten up to, just give me a minute.” Kevin rose up from his chair. 

Stevonnie leaned back in their chair, watching him scurry to the door. Their guard stepped closer, watching along with them.

“Uh kiddo, why’s he so jittery?”

“You know what Greg, I think that’s just kinda how he is.”  
\--

Kevin couldn’t wait to get to the door, he just wanted the meeting to be over, and as embarrassing as it was to admit, he just wanted to see Jamie after that catastrophe. Asides from that, Kevin didn’t trust Ronaldo, and he was getting a little concerned that their talk took longer than five minutes.

“How’s everything going out here?” At his voice, Jamie turned around, causing Kevin to flinch. He looked like he’d just seen a ghost.

“Just fine, Jamie is a wonderful conversation partner.”

“Oh, is that so?” 

Kevin felt compelled to pull Jamie away. Ronaldo was creepy, but this was new.

“Oh yes. And while I have you, would you like to hear about the new evidence I’ve gathered about the gem creatures?”

“Do you think I’m stupi-” Kevin looked down to his right when he noticed Jamie was pulling on his sleeve. That frightened expression hadn’t gone away, and it was begging for him to comply with him.

“You know what, sure. You can uh, drop it off at my office later.” Ronaldo grimaced but seemed content with his agreement.

“Okay, by the way, so sorry I couldn’t get the information about the meeting to you earlier, if only you’d woken up at your usual time.” Ronaldo spun on his heel and turned to leave.

Kevin cleared his throat uneasily as he watched him go, scratching his neck. He was always weird, but this time he was acting like he knew something. Which was strange, because Kevin was under the impression that he didn’t know anything.

“So, did you know that Sadie isn’t Stevonnie’s sister? I didn’t.” His attempt at a light-hearted conversation didn’t get anything from him.

“What did he say to you?” 

Jamie fidgeted with his hands, trying to find the words to tell Kevin what he knew and what could happen, but he couldn’t make himself speak. He couldn’t do much except just look up at him with his terrified expression and hope that he got the hint.

“Jamie, your turn to clean the dining room today.” He turned his head, and Lars was standing next to him.

“Uh, I don’t think that’s my job.” Lars shoved a still damp rag into his arms regardless.

“Well I’m not doing it, I’ve got enough to do today.” Jamie was now fidgeting with the rag, hoping that Kevin would be able to connect the dots. It seemed he was able because his expression changed from concerned to anxious.

“Uh, I guess I have to go.” 

“Alright, alright. Um, could you come by my office later, though? I wanna talk to you.” 

Jamie gripped the rag tightly, somehow becoming even more worried. He knew he hadn’t done anything wrong, and it probably wasn’t anything, but he was so on edge he couldn’t think straight.

“Yeah. Gotta go, bye.”   
\--

Jamie didn’t know why, but it was some weird fact of life that everything in the castle just always seemed to collect such a large amount of dust that took forever to clean. He didn’t know when he’d ever get used to how much cleaning a single room in the castle needed. The only part of this he was grateful for was that he was able to forget about what happened earlier. He could just focus on what he was cleaning and not think about anything else. 

Once he was done, he walked to the doorway of the dining room, and just stopped short. He was getting deja vu of his first day here, back when he was waiting in front of the door to the throne room he could only think about what would happen if he opened it. If he opened the door, he would have started his job, and if he didn’t, he could just stand there and think about it. Now if he walked out and over to Kevin’s office, he’d have to deal with whatever he wanted to talk about, and possibly run into Ronaldo again. If he just stayed here, he didn’t have to deal with anything. He took a step back into the room. 

It was embarrassing how long he stayed standing there, and he was grateful nobody had come in to ask him what he was doing there. It took him too long to win the argument against himself and make himself leave the room. He took a deep breath and he walked out into the hallway.

It was even more embarrassing how long he stood in front of the closed door to Kevin’s office. He just stood there, fidgeting with his bow tie, contemplating what he’d say when he walked in. How he’d defend himself if Kevin got mad at him for the possibility of what happened last night getting out. Jamie slapped himself in the face a couple times, then stopped when he realized if someone saw him he’d be known as that weirdo who hit himself. His hand shook as he opened the door slightly, hoping whatever conversation was waiting for him went well.

“There you are. Come in.” Where he had expected Kevin to be stressed with paperwork and a grim expression, was Kevin with a smug look on his face and a piece of cake in front of him. 

“Uh, hey. What’s going on?”

“Just waiting for you, come on, sit down.” He gestured to the chair on the other side of the desk, keeping his eyes on him as he walked over to the chair and sat down.

“So, what have you got there?” Jamie pointed to the cake. Kevin turned his smug expression to flirty and faked innocent as he spoke.

“Well I was /going/ to eat this chocolate cake but then I remembered Lars told me that before I talked to them, Stevonnie had been taken on a tour of the castle.”

“And?”

“And I thought, well, they really seem to be against my kingdom and me, maybe this could have been poisoned.” Jamie raised an eyebrow, trying to figure out what he was trying to do. 

“I don’t think they’d do something like that.” Kevin’s flirty look shifted only for a second when Jamie didn’t go along with him.

“Who knows? I’m a public figure, why wouldn’t they do this? And if I’m poisoned, what would this place do without me?” 

Jamie stared at him. He could tell from the expression on his face that this was somewhat not serious, but he couldn’t figure out what he was trying to do. He decided he’d just let him talk.

“So, this is a long way of saying that I want you to try this for me first.”

“You what?” Kevin picked up his fork and chopped off a piece and held it up in front of him.

“What, do you want your prince to be poisoned?” He shoved the fork in his direction as if to feed him. Jamie wasn’t sure what he was doing, but he was fairly positive he wasn’t being serious. At least, he was hoping.

“So you’d rather let your prized butler be poisoned?” Jamie leaned back in the chair and folded his arms. Kevin’s face faltered as he realized the holes in his plan. 

“Oh come on, just try it?” 

Jamie sighed, and awkwardly opened his mouth and bit the cake off of the fork. He leaned back again and hummed slightly. One of the best parts of living in a castle is how much better the food was compared to anywhere else.

“How is it?”

“Hmm, tastes like cyanide.” Kevin’s eyes widened a little.

“I’m joking. It’s really good.” Kevin smiled, taking the fork back and then picking up another bite and holding it out in front of him.

“Oh come on, this is so corny.” Jamie’s face flushed slightly as he glanced away to the floor.

“I thought it was cake.” 

“Just-” He ate the cake again, his face flushing even more.

“But, it is kinda romantic.” 

They continued like that for a while, until Jamie decided to let Kevin have the last bite of the cake. Kevin smiled at him softly, glad that he was enjoying himself and that his plan to get him to relax was working. However, once the cake was gone and they were just staring at each other, Jamie decided it was an optimal time to tell Kevin about what had happened that morning.

“Uhhh Kev? Can I talk to you?” His face fell, even though he knew this was coming. He was just glad that he was able to make him a little happy for a little while.

“Sure.”

“You know Ronaldo, right.” He scowled.

“Unfortunately.”

 

“Well, I have reason to believe he knows what uh, we did last night.” Kevin swallowed hard as he processed the information.

“What kind of reason?”

“You know, like, a notepad with a lot of incriminating descriptions. Of things. And, sounds.”

“Oh.” 

Jamie went back to fidgeting with his hands, the nervousness from earlier returning to him. Now that he put the info out there, he couldn’t just hide behind a door, Kevin was staring right at him. 

“Sorry.”

“For what?”

“For, like..” He was about to make a crude reenactment with his hands before he just let them fall back into his lap.

“Because I knew that you had to do this marriage thing and I still..” He couldn’t bring himself to even say what he did.

“Well, to be fair, that was more of a team effort.” 

“Still! And even if you didn’t have to marry Sadie in like a few months you’re still a prince! I’m a butler! Don’t you think that’s kind of scandalous on its own?” 

Kevin scratched the back of his head, adjusting his crown slightly. Technically, Jamie was right. Regardless of the arranged marriage, a prince sleeping with his butler was definitely not something anyone would want the public to know about. The more he thought about it, the less reassuring things he could say. The most he could do was just grab his hands and hold them as he thought about what would make him feel better.

“Don’t worry, I’ll take care of it. I promise.”


	6. Chapter 6

//This is mostly fluffy but tbh kinda scary n sad//

Sometimes Jamie forgot just how much power Kevin had. He could do practically anything he wanted to. Nothing illegal, no, but there were so many legal things he could do. Like make an employee literally disappear overnight.

After a rather corny and informal date, Jamie went back to his nightly routine of putting Kevin to bed. Sure, it wasn’t required or even part of his job, but he didn’t want to break the routine, or at least that’s what he told himself. The thing about it was now that he and the prince were technically together, both of them started having a sudden aversion to sleeping alone.

“Kevin, don’t you think sleeping in your room again would be even more suspicious?” He ignored his concern, walking to the door of his office, ready to go to sleep after doing absolutely no work whatsoever.

“Then we’ll sleep in your room tonight. Confuse them.” Jamie jumped slightly at the proposition, getting a little embarrassed. Even though he was supposed to be prim and proper his room was by no means tidy.

“Huh?”

“It’ll be like a sleepover. You slept in my room, why can’t I sleep in yours?”

Jamie tripped over his words, trying to think of any and every excuse he could use to just keep sleeping in Kevin’s room. Once he realized that anything he could think of would be countered, he bit his tongue and got up, ready to follow him back to his room.

With every step he glanced around, checking to see if anyone was watching them. When they got to the hall where his room was he got even more worried, listening intently for any sound of footsteps. Once he felt like they were alone, he put his hand on the doorknob and gave the hallway one last glance.

“Uh, fair warning, it’s not very clean in here.”

When he opened the door, he kept his eyes on what was before him instead of Kevin’s reaction. Compared to Kevin’s room, the bed was nowhere near made, there were some clothes on the floor, and almost all surfaces were scattered with trinkets. In his defense, he never expected to have company in there.

In addition, Jamie’s bedroom was definitely not as nice as Kevin’s. Of course it wasn’t, Kevin was a prince, his bed was much bigger and there was a lot more space. Even though it was just logic, Jamie couldn’t help feeling embarrassed.

“Yeah, for a butler you don’t clean up after yourself very much, huh”

“Uh-”

“I mean, it’s not that bad.”

Jamie stood, swaying slightly as he thought of what to do. Last night they had had a long talk and then had..fun..before going to sleep. But now he was kind of tired and would have much preferred his normal night routine.

“So, I’m gonna take a shower.”

“Can I come with?” For some reason this time he wasn’t surprised.

“You can wait your turn. I won’t take long.”

Kevin huffed as he sat back onto Jamie’s bed, beginning his wait. In his boredom, he turned his attention to his surroundings.  
\--

Regardless of what they’d done before, Jamie made certain to bring his pajamas with him to change into immediately after. He dried his hair, listening to hear if Kevin was doing anything. Once he was ready for bed he pushed open the door.

“You still have this?” Jamie walked over to his dresser to check what he was referencing. When he walked over he realized Kevin was holding the piece of his very own crown.

“Well, you did give it to me. Sorry about knocking it off that time, anyway.” Kevin picked it up, looking it over. The color was fading and scraped around the edges.

“It’s alright. If anyone else had done it I’d probably have gotten pretty pissed off.” He looked away from the piece of gold and up to Jamie’s eyes.

“But I don’t mind when it’s you.”

He pressed the gold into Jamie’s hand and leaned in to kiss him at the same time. He put his other hand on the back of his head, tangling his fingers in his hair. Jamie relaxed, still getting used to Kevin kissing him. It had only happened for the first time last night, and he wasn’t very adjusted to it yet.

“My turn for the shower,” he whispered against Jamie’s lips before he moved out of the way and sauntered over to the bathroom door.

Jamie watched him walk away and closed the door, ghosting his fingers over his lips. With a content sigh, he went to his bed and got under the covers.  
\--

Unlike Jamie, Kevin had no problem walking out of the bathroom with only a towel. Jamie pretended to cover his eyes, peering through the spaces between his fingers discreetly.

“Are you really going to change in here?” Kevin walked over to Jamie’s dresser and pulled open drawers until he found another pair of pajamas.

“No, I just need something to wear. You don’t mind, do you?”

Jamie pulled away from his hand and looked at him and the clothes in his hands. Even though he didn’t want to admit it, he was having interesting thoughts of him wearing his clothes, even if they were identical to everyone else who lived in the castle and was issued pajamas.

“No, go ahead.”

Kevin smiled, walking back to the bathroom to change. When the door was closed, Jamie ran a hand through his hair. He had it bad.

He flopped back down onto the bed, staring up at the ceiling as he waited for him. He thought of how nice it was when Kevin held him last night, and if he’d hold him tonight too. He thought of how it was actually a little fun that they were dating now and keeping it secret. He then thought about how it was at such a time when Kevin’s arranged marriage was ever approaching. Then, he thought of Sadie.

His joy was falling steadily and his smile faltering. She had no idea about this, and he had never bothered to let her know. Then again, he and Kevin hadn’t really recognized their feelings for each other at that point. But still, Sadie didn’t know at all, she didn’t even know that Kevin didn’t want to marry her at all and hoping he wouldn’t have to.

Before he could even think of what to do, he heard the sound of the door opening. Kevin stepped out and headed over to the bed, getting under the bed with him.

When he got in, he wrapped his arms around his waist and nuzzled into his neck. The longer he laid there holding him, the more he realized Jamie was hesitant to hold him back. He rubbed circles in his side as he waited for him to relax, but he was still worried and cautious. He pulled back slightly and gently grabbed Jamie’s face, looking to his eyes, trying to figure out what was wrong.

“Hey, it’s going to be okay. It doesn’t matter what he knows, I said I’d take care of it.”

Jamie would have argued that wasn’t why he was upset, but he was really getting tired, and he didn’t want all of their romantic interaction to be just talking about why each of them was sad about something.

“Thank you, I trust you.” Jamie leaned into his chest, wrapping his arms around him. Kevin went back to leaning his head in the crook of his neck, trying to convince Jamie he was falling asleep.  
\--

Jamie’s eyes flickered open as he heard some noise from the hall. He looked out the window, and the sky was still dark. When he listened, he heard Kevin’s voice. Not the soft tone he usually heard, but unfeeling. Well, not necessarily unfeeling, but any feeling or emotion he had wasn’t for the person he was talking to.

“Now, I think it’s time you left, don’t you?”

“Please, the only reason you’re getting rid of me is because you don’t want this to get out.”

“The reason I’m getting rid of you is purely out of sympathy for a pathetic creature. I could be heartless, I could send you to the guillotine for treason.”

“That’s not treason.”

“Are you going to accept my mercy, or are you going to get the hell out of here before I sever your brain stem?”

There was then footsteps, slow at first, then quickly, signalling that whoever Kevin was talking to had run away. Then there was another set of footsteps, calmer and quieter, walking back into Jamie’s room. Jamie closed his eyes and relaxed, pretending that he was asleep. He heard the door close and felt Kevin’s arms wrap around him again, playing with his hair softly.  
\--

Once he had woken up, Jamie’s main concern was not to let anyone know that Kevin had slept in his room. He had worked out a whole stealth plan for when Kevin was allowed to leave his room and how long he had to wait to talk to him so nobody got suspicious.

“Bossy. Looks like you’re getting your way to being a prince, too.” Kevin clipped together the golden clasps on his coat, getting ready to go to his office per Jamie’s instructions.

“I just want to make sure nobody else finds out. Dealing with Ronaldo is bad enough.”

“Oh, he’s long gone.” Jamie tied his bow tie as he walked towards him, confused at his phrasing.

“What?” Kevin realized his blurting and corrected himself.

“Oh, uh, nothing. Well, I suppose I’ll go. See you in what, ten minutes?” Kevin teased him for his plan.

 

“I’m being safe. See you in ten minutes.”

 

“But how will I live so long without you?” Kevin raised his voice an octave in mocking. Jamie playfully pushed his arm.

“You’ll be fine,” he leaned up to press a kiss onto his cheek. “Go on.”

Kevin smiled and winked flirtily as he walked through the door, making it awfully clear that he was swaggering right out of Jamie’s room and he had slept there last night.

Jamie rolled his eyes, loosening up slightly about not being seen in his bedroom together. He sighed and followed him through the open door, jogging to keep up with him.

“Aw, couldn’t stay away from me, could you?”

“Guess I couldn’t. Is that so bad?” He felt Kevin’s hand on his head, ruffling his hair slightly.

“Nah, I like knowing you want to be around me. Your job is pretty much just being required to stand around me all day.”

“I don’t really mind it, you’re good to be around.”

“Yeah, right back at you.”

Jamie would have followed him into his office if he wasn’t tapped on the shoulder with no warning.

“Hey, kid! I got more mail for ya!”

“Oh, hi Barb! Uh, you can keep going Kev, I’ll catch up with you later.” Barb dug her hand into her mailbag and searched around for whatever belonged to Jamie.

“Not gonna lie, it’s mostly coupons, but it’s not like you can really use them, heh. When’s the last time anyone here just went to get fries or something?”

“I don’t know, don’t tell Lars but no matter how good his food is I’d kill for some junk food for once.” Barb snickered, finally pulling a couple envelopes out of the bag.

“Secret’s safe with me. Oh, and here’s a postcard from Sadie! She’s supposed to be having some sort of bachelorette trip. How long is it? Like a few weeks until the wedding?”

Jamie’s good mood immediately disappeared. He was so caught up in Kevin liking him back he didn’t pay much attention to the passage of time or inevitability of certain events.

“Yeah, I’d say about, haha, ha.” Jamie had been growing less and less nervous in interactions in the castle since he got there, but this conversation was just reverting him back to his old cowardice.

“She’s so excited, her friends are so jealous of her!”

“Oh, I bet. Oh god..” He whispered the last thing under his breath.

“What was that?”

“Nothing! Thanks for the mail, bye!”

After a walk/sprint away to the closed door of Kevin’s office, he leaned against the wall and looked through the envelopes, opening the one containing Sadie’s postcard. As if knowing she was thinking of him wasn’t bad enough, the words she had for him just made the situation sting more:

/Hey, Jamie! It’s been really warm here, and I liked it at first but it’s kind of getting to me. At least the castle has air conditioning, huh? I can’t wait for the trip to be over, this is all a little overwhelming, but it’s still really exciting! I’ll see you in the castle in a few weeks! Sincerely-Sadie/

“Dammit Sadie, why do you have to be so nice? You’re making this difficult.”

“Talking to yourself?”

With a swift turn of his head, he found Kevin had opened the door when he heard him coming and thus heard him curse Sadie under his breath. He was leaning against the doorway, that trademark flirty expression still on his face. He wasn’t even trying to keep this a secret anymore, but that wasn’t why Jamie was nervous. When he saw Jamie wasn’t smiling, his face went back to a neutral, slightly worried look.

“You alright?”

“Oh, yeah, yeah. I’m coming, just give me a minute.”

“Okay, 60..59..”

“Oh just get going, would you? I said I’ll be there in a bit. Besides, it’s just paperwork, you’ll live.”

Kevin snickered softly as he walked back into his office, still counting down.

Once Kevin couldn’t see him anymore, he took the postcard back from behind his back. The picture was of some resort Jamie had never heard of before nor could he pronounce. He could just picture it, Sadie having such a great time, having so much fun with her friends, entirely convinced that the prince would love her, and be excited to meet her.

Yet, only a day or so ago did Jamie and Kevin become relatively comfortable with being together. Jamie had been longing for a good while, and he had finally gotten what he wanted. Regardless of whatever would come in a month or less, he was happy, and he was where he wanted to be.

He was so happy with this situation, his hands shook as something awful, deep inside of him forced him to rip up the card and throw the pieces into the nearest trash can.


	7. Chapter 7

//This is short but this is all I think I should be in this chapter//

The wedding kept creeping closer and closer, and Kevin and Jamie opted to ignore it, dancing on eggshells to avoid being found out, no matter how obvious it was. Maybe it was denial, maybe it was just being afraid of being ripped apart, or maybe it just didn’t feel like it was going to happen. No matter how many people talked about the planning it just didn’t register with either of them, ignorance is bliss.

Jamie had even forgotten about Sadie and her letter. Well, he didn’t forget necessarily, but he pushed the thoughts down in favor of sleeping in Kevin’s arms and kissing him on the cheek when people weren’t looking.

Kevin had also taken a more nihilistic approach to the wedding. When anyone asked his opinion on any color schemes or options he’d pick a random one, not acknowledging how ugly it would look or how inconvenient would be. 

“Sir, what color would you like the vases?”

“Uhhhh….orange.”

“Uh, with the purple tablecloths?”

“Yeah, why not?” The butler cleared his throat.

“And the banners?”

“Lime green.” 

“What?”

“Lime green. /Bright/ lime green.” Before they could get another word in Kevin waved them off with the excuse that he had work to do, which he absolutely did not.

It was practically /a joke/ between them at this point. Any mention of it would make them have to fight back snickers.

It had even gotten to the point where Jamie practically forgot who Ronaldo was, even if he only left not that long ago. One time when someone mentioned his name he actually had to think about it before he remembered who he was or what he did.

Once the butler had left the room, Jamie got up from his seat and walked over to Kevin’s desk, resting his chin on Kevin’s shoulder. Kevin turned to him and planted a chaste kiss on his lips. Recently, they had become a lot more affectionate, though of course only when they were alone.

“Hey, do you think you could get me a drink from the kitchen?”

“Aren’t you 19?”

“I meant like a soda.” Jamie rolled his eyes and forced himself up from his chair next to Kevin’s desk.

“The things I do for you, I swear.” Jamie’s voice was dripping with sarcasm, but he was still smirking.

“Well I mean technically it is your job.”

“You’re lucky I love you.” 

Kevin had his legs kicked up on his desk, and they shifted slightly at Jamie’s remark. He blanked, pushing his crown back to sit evenly on his head and then his face morphed back to a flirty smile.

“I sure am. I love you too.” Kevin blew a kiss at him as he left the room, snickering quietly.

Jamie had been in the castle so long it was practically home to him, maybe even more home than his actual house back in town. He had memorized basically every hallway and every room along the walls. It took him barely any time at all to make his way into the kitchen and over to the fridge. Regardless of how professional royalty was supposed to be, being cooped up in a castle for most of the time led to Kevin complaining until Lars supplied the kitchen with sugary sodas and other unhealthy food.

And speak of the devil, there he was, wiping the counter down as per usual. 

“Oh hey, Lars. What’s up?” When he realized Jamie was there, he gave him an expression somewhere between disgust and sympathy.

“Sheesh, I know I told you to just act on your feelings but I didn’t think you were actually gonna /do/ it.” Jamie moved the can to his other hand when his palm got too cold, squinting in confusion.

“What are you talking about?” 

Lars just shook his head. Not in disdain, but in sympathy for someone too naive to know what they had gotten themselves into. 

“Well, I’m gonna bring Kevin his soda.”

“Tch, is that all you’re gonna bring him?” Jamie was taken aback, and even slightly angry.

“I don’t like your tone.” 

“/Is that all you’re gonna bring him?/” Lars brought his voice up to a higher pitched, more nasally tone. (I'm sorry thats a SpongeBob reference)

“You know what I meant.”

With a hmph, Jamie spun on his heel, now considerably more grumpy than he thought he would be that day. He took a deep breath, wiping the moisture from the soda can on his pants as he walked back to Kevin’s office. He was hoping to have a nice day hanging out with Kevin again, and he wouldn’t have fun if he was just cranky because of one off-handed remark.

“Hey Kevin, I didn’t know what kind you wanted but I just got you some Dr P-” 

Jamie cut his sentence short when he saw Kevin staring blankly at a newspaper, not even acknowledging that Jamie had walked back into the room. 

“Hey, what’s up?” He spoke with a soft voice as he set the can down on top of a coaster on his desk. The sound perked him up, and Kevin shielded the newspaper from his boyfriend. 

“Oh, oh thanks. H-hey could you go get me a straw?”

“Are you okay?” Kevin set the newspaper face down onto the desk and scratched the back of his neck. 

“Y-yeah can you just get me a straw please?” 

“Alright, I swear you’re like ten years old.” Jamie bent down to place a kiss on his cheek before walking back to the door.

“Next time I’m gonna make /you/ get /me/ things.” 

Kevin muttered in agreement as Jamie walked out. Once he was sure Jamie was a good distance down the hallway, he flipped the newspaper back over to the article ‘Prince Kevin: the Royal Slut by Ronaldo Fryman’.

 

//haha OOF//


	8. Chapter 8

Dawn of the final week.

If he was being honest, everything was not okay. The wedding was nearing ever closer, and people were treating him odd for god knows what. 

Jamie was currently, in an internal state of panic and constant zoning out.

His thoughts were ever preoccupied with what the hell he and Kevin were going to do and what the hell he did to get Barb acting cold to him. Barb. 

She had just handed him an envelope without a single word. No. She shoved the envelope in his general direction and struggled to let him take it away. Once she had delivered it, she went on her way, looking significantly happier to no longer be in his presence.

When he looked down at the letter, he saw it was addressed from Sadie. He had almost forgotten. For the days leading up to the wedding, she would be staying in the castle, getting situated, having her stuff moved in. 

A whole week of interacting with future princess Sadie, knowing what he did, not knowing she knew too. It was agonizing.

Jamie opened it up and read a couple paragraphs that should have just been a few sentences, and there were a couple spots where the ink had bled out in small, stiff patches. She wrote him how excited she was and how fun it would be to live in the castle, to be with Kevin. To be with Kevin. /To Be With Kevin/.

His stomach tensed, and he swallowed thickly, reminded of the things he’d done. He had slept with Kevin knowing full well he was supposed to have a wife soon. He was a home wrecker now, and he couldn’t take it back. 

Sadie was a wonderful friend. She was always there for him, they always hung out together, always kept each other’s secrets. 

Now he was keeping the worst possible secret from her that he could.

He tried to justify it in his head. Kevin was the one who initiated it anyway, Kevin doesn’t even love her, Sadie probably doesn’t even love him, etc, etc. But as he followed this train of thought more and more, the more selfish he felt.

Jamie was keeping Kevin to himself, an engaged man, and hadn’t intended on stopping even far into the official union. He threw out Sadie’s feelings and did nothing more than focus on his own wants.

It felt painful to rip up this one.  
—

There were mere days left.

Sadie was now staying in the room next to Kevin’s and spending an awful lot of time with him lately. Which she was supposed to, and which with there was nothing wrong, but it didn’t make Jamie feel any better. The other day she put her hand on his arm and Jamie’s eye twitched.

In fact, it felt as if he was growing more and more bitter as time progressed. Things that would normally be small talk came off as snippy, and he seemed rather irritated with every little thing that existed in his field of vision. He couldn’t think straight, and he didn’t quite think anything out before he did it, to the point of clumsiness.

“Jamie!”

He whipped his head around to see the source of the voice. Sadie was calling for him to come over and talk with a handful of wrapped candies in her hands.

“What’s up?” 

“You guys have mints in your rooms?” Jamie chuckled quietly.

“I know, right?”

“This place is awfully fancy. How do you stay so humble?” She folded her arms.

“Ha, I have no clue. You’ll tell me if I start acting like an ass, though, right?”

“Don’t need to ask, Jamie.”

Jamie refrained from informing her he was already acting like an ass.

“So, you and Kevin been getting along well?”

Sadie seemed surprised at the notion as if she had completely forgotten the coming event. She tugged nervously on her dress and she seemed much more nervous now that he’d brought it up. 

“Oh! Of course, course. Hey uh, you think maybe we could hang out later? A mini bachelorette party, if you will.”

“Sure, just send Barb for me when you need me.” Sadie tilted her head, confused.

“Pff, if she can even stand to talk to you.”

“What do you mean?”

“She’s kinda been talking-” Sadie looked around the hallway. “-shit about you for some reason. She won’t tell me why, though. You didn’t bend an envelope of hers, did you?” 

“Heh, might have dropped one once. See you later, then?”

“Later!” 

Jamie was not looking forward to Sadie sending for him to hang out. He knew full well why she was pissed, and he dreaded having to keep the secret around her for so long.  
—

Kevin, too, was struggling.

Once he called a few favors, he managed to stop the flow of the story before it really hit. Ronaldo had only gotten them printed, and Kevin tended to receive the newspapers before others. This had prevented it from getting to the general public, and there were a couple of staff members who didn’t know what had happened but certainly spreading rumors. The situation was perfectly controlled. Mostly. 

Ronaldo was certainly an idiot with a complete lack of a moral compass, but he did have at least /one/ functional brain cell because he had also personally sent a copy to Monarch Stevonnie. And Kevin was going to get hell for this.

They would be here the day before the wedding to go over the peace treaty one last time, and Kevin just knew they were /really/ just coming to tear him a new one. All he could really do was pretend he and Sadie had connected at all and just wait.  
—

Every little thing was getting to Jamie more and more. He had been nearly silent to everyone in the castle the past few days, and the conversations he did have were not polite.

Then again, who could blame him? Aside from the inner turmoil of having already cucked Sadie before she even married Kevin, he had the added bonus of everyone talking behind his back. It was obvious enough that at this point, they knew something he didn’t. Which was true, but Kevin had sworn them to secrecy by begging so much he started crying a little. 

He wasn’t thinking clearly, his blood was pounding in his ears. He was so confused, kind of angry, rather sad, and mostly scared. Which was why he marched rather than walked to Kevin’s office, and swung open the door.

“Oh hey, there you are. Where were you this mornin- mmf!” Jamie had grabbed him by the face and slammed his lips onto his. 

A few moments passed of Jamie’s thoughts going right out the window, and refusing to let Kevin get a breath. He kissed him till his mouth hurt, and even then he didn’t want to stop the feeling. Jamie finally pulled off when he ran out of air, and pulled far back, gasping as he’d just been holding his breath underwater for a minute.

Once he had regulated his breathing, he wiped some spit off his chin with his coat sleeve and looked back down at Kevin’s bewildered face.

“I’m just gonna...go.” 

Jamie swiveled his head around to see Derrick get out of his chair and walk out of the room. Once the door closed with a solid click, he turned back to the prince on the other side of the desk.

“H-hello to you too.” Kevin coughed into his fist briefly and stood up, trying to force away his red face. Jamie felt relieved, as if all his pent up energy had flown out and he could think again.

“S-“

“Who knows?” Kevin straightened his posture.

“Huh?”

“Who knows, Kevin.”

Kevin took a step back, nervous. He had been hoping they could put it all behind them, and Jamie would never have to know. There was always the thought that ‘Jamie’s too smart for that’, but at least he could say he tried.

“Who knows what-“

“Who.” 

Kevin tugged on the neck of his jacket.

“The uh. Castle. Ronaldo tried to publish it, but it never left the castle, I promise.”

Jamie folded his arms.

“Why didn’t you tell me that everyone knew? Couldn’t we /both/ be fired for something like this?” 

“Well-“

“And you said you had a plan for stopping the wedding, but it’s been about a month and I haven’t heard so much as an idea. What are you planning on doing Kevin? /Tell me/.”

There were some things that just didn’t seem natural when you saw them. Long furbies, those pictures of cats with glowing eyes, but there was a new contender for that position. Angry Jamie. It felt, wrong, out of place, and frankly, scary. Kevin took a deep breath. 

“I. I’ve gone through all my options. And…”

“And?”

“....I have to go through with it. I don’t have a choice.”

Kevin had hoped he’d just yell at him. Scream, whine, do something, anything. But not a word came out of either of their mouths as Kevin kept his eyes trained on the floor. Finally, he heard Jamie take a breath to speak.

“I don’t think… we should be together anymore.”

Kevin felt his heart tear at those words. There were several outcomes to this situation he had pictured, but this was the worst one.

“We can be discreet-“

“You are getting /married/, technically I shouldn’t even refer to you by your first name. This was fun, really, but I couldn’t go on like this. I couldn’t do it to you, I couldn’t do it to Sadie. /You/ shouldn’t do it to Sadie.”

“But-“

“There is no way we could do this and have it end well. I’m sorry, Kevin.” 

Jamie walked over to him, with his fingers softly brushing his cheek, leaning in to give him one last goodbye kiss. Mere centimeters away, he stopped himself, closed his mouth, and gave Kevin only a firm pat on the shoulder before turning for the door. He opened it and paused in the doorframe.

“You can put yourself to bed tonight.”

He walked into the hallway and shut the door behind him.  
—

His shoes hit the floor of the empty hallway louder than he had intended, stomping like a child throwing a tantrum. He shouldn’t have been mad. After all, it was his fault they were in this mess. Jamie could have just kept his feelings to himself, tucked them deep away, and been happy for Sadie from the beginning, and he never would have even had the impulse to come between her and Kevin.

Well, he couldn’t say /that/ for sure, but he could certainly stop himself from doing so.

And for the time being, what was he going to do? Go to Sadie and tell her in explicit detail why he was a terrible person? Live with this secret until he died? Both options sounded awful to him, but by the time he had made it to his room, it was obvious which one would be /right/ to choose.

He turned away from his bedroom door and turned to a different corridor, praying he wouldn’t see Kevin in front of his own room. Luckily, the only person who was there had left to another part of the castle, of course not without giving him a side eye first.

Jamie was furious. At himself, for daring to do something like this. At Kevin, for keeping important and compromising information from him. At Sadie, for through no fault of her own being the one to ‘steal’ the prince from him. He swung open Sadie’s door, unsure if he was preparing himself to yell at her or to cry and fling himself, sobbing, into her arms.

“Sadie I-”

“Hey!” 

Lars had snapped his head up violently, his shirt not on his body and his back glistening with sweat, and future princess Sadie pulled away from him, pulling her dress back to cover her shoulders and staring at Jamie with the most frightened and embarrassed look he had ever seen.

He slammed the door shut and pressed his back to it, sweat cooling on his neck.

Getting this off his chest might be easier than he thought.


End file.
